So the board I write most on got hacked and I lost a bunch of the stuff I've written over last year. And its hard to get up the energy to write something when 30 Dustin Rhodes reviews dissapeared never to be found. Haven't done A RAW report in along time because I've been watching on Tivo which allows me to skip through a lot. Yep, I’m commited enough to craft that believe I have to suffer through the whole thing if I’m going to do a fair review.

So I wasn't going to write anything and then read really dumb discussion of the show and hammered this out, kind of like how it came out in the end.

From what I saw this was one of the better RAWS I’ve watched in awhile. And so we get the Tribute to Johnny Ace RAW Workrate Review.

WHAT WORKED

Vince not knowing the name of his own shitty company entertained me.

Murdoch vs. Hurricane was pretty damn good. The WWE needs to tape all their RAWs in Wichita Falls because I can’t remember the last time I’ve seen a Raw crowd this hot. This hot for Hurricane no less. This is the superheroes. Neither of them got as much offense against Tomko as the unnamed jobber. I mean the Superheroes team has been buried so badly that two weeks ago when Viscera/Venis and Hurricane/Rosey worked essentially the same match on the same show the crowd was nuts for Viscera/Venis while could only be mildly stirred by Hurricane/Rosey. And the Superheroes were working the better heel team. Crowd chanting and stomping for Hurricane when he got put in the first neck vice, then doing it again when he got put in the reverse chinlock and again during the double count section. Damn that was a hot crowd. Match itself was sweet. Not as stiff as Trevor Rhodes vs. Ace Steel but still really nicely worked with underdog face fighting with one wing against stronger brawler.

Carlito is the oddly good underated worker on RAW. Carlito is guy brought up in the Puerto Rican system working the Puerto Rican audience and never can be accused of working a simulated match. He is essentially working a poor man’s Rey Gonzalez. Rey Gonzalez is Puerto Rican Flair working Midatlantic style in the 90s. Poor man’s Rey Gonzalez maybe better than Helmsley’s “I watch a lot of tapes and try to simulate it”fake Flair shtick. At one point Quinones I think was trying to get Flair down to work Gonzalez (maybe Invader I had tried to do it earlier)…whatever the deal instead Quinones ended up jerking off over David Flairs bed and that match will never be. This match tonight gave a taste of how good Mr. Raytings vs. Flair might have been. I think that hurt my enjoyment of the match because I kept on watching going “Damn I wish this was vs. Mr Raytings in Puerto Rico instead”. Anyways this was first of the Ace does All Japan in WWE matches tonight. As this was really great Momota vs. Kawabata match. I’ve written in the past about how WWF main event wrestling at best is essentially worked like Family Gundan matches. And this was just really nicely worked Eigen vs. Kawabata. I thought this was better than Flair vs. Angle (which I compared to Eigen vs. Marafuji). Didn’t like the Flair hairmares across the ropes spot. Liked the Flair does three stooges eye poke as receipt spot. Liked the Flair hits top rope move (which he always has done when working face) as comedy spot. Thought the match had some weak stuff in it but really felt like between Flair and Carlito they have enough stuff between them that they can probably eventually have a really GREAT Momota vs. Inoue match in them.

Main event was second of the Ace does WWE matches. As this was all about your All Japan style multiperson match pacing where you get guys in and out of ring and establish everyone’s role and move a story forward. Really it is the big thing that Ace really brought to the WWE. This wasn’t as good as the better invasion ones. But those were built around DDP and really got sense that no one in this understood the match as well as DDP did. Really got across the Edge vs. Hardy storyline, really used Big Show well , and controlled Masters and Schnitsky well. I thought it was a mistake to use Angle vs. Michaels in the Kikuchi vs. Fuchi role of filling time while Big Show recovered as instead of working like Fuchi torturing Kikuchi they instead worked really even quick exchange section like Xibalba vs. Coco Verde in alucha six man. Made it more apparent that they were just killing time for Big Show recovery. Edge should have been in that section as Edge ate the pin while Angle disappeared into the ether. But that’s really all minor layout complaint for otherwise really watchable match.

WHAT DIDN’T WORK

That backstage segment with Carlito, Flair and Masters….ughhh. Masters really is a poor man’s Matt Morgan.

They’re booking Bischoff vs. Cena to counterprogram against the UFC?? “See that martial arts doesn’t work when faced with roided pro wrestling..That'll show em” Vince is crazy.